United Kingdom Fishing Vessel Numbers by Home Port

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Statistics on the UK fishing fleet since 1990 have been based on the fleet of fishing vessels as registered with the Register of Shipping and Seamen, part of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency which is an executive agency of the Department for Transport. Information provided by the Register includes the length (overall and registered), breadth, gross tonnage, power, age and material of construction. The length of a vessel is its overall length, the tonnage is its Gross Tonnage (GT) and the power is its total maximum continuous engine power (MCEP) in Kilowatts, as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 2930/86. Gross Tonnage (GT) under the London Convention (1969) was adopted as the unit of tonnage measurement in the 1990s. This was a change from the previously used Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) under the Oslo Convention (1946). A phased programme of remeasurement was introduced in the UK in 1996 which was completed by the early part of 2004. RSS Register details are supplemented with details of fishing vessels as registered with the Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) to form the full UK fleet, details of which are reported to the European Commission on a regular basis and recorded as part of the EU Community Fleet Register. Vessel nationality for UK countries is based on the administration ports where vessels are licensed as at the end of December of each year. Vessels which are registered but do not have an administration port are not counted against any country. Licensing of vessels first applied in 1977 and covered only fishing vessels over 40 feet (12.14 metres) in certain fisheries. Following the adoption of the European Unions Common Fisheries Policy, the UK designated a number of fish stocks as pressure stocks and introduced a restrictive licensing scheme for vessels fishing those stocks. The licensing regime initially only covered vessels over 10 metres registered length, but its coverage has been progressively extended over the years: In February 1990 the licensing regime was extended to vessels of over 10 metres overall length fishing for a stocks. Later in 1990 restrictive licensing was extended to cover all fishing by vessels over 10 metres overall length with the exception of those fishing for salmon and migratory trout which were covered by a separate regime. From May 1993 licensing was extended to vessels of 10 metres and under overall length. Coverage: Registered UK vessels at 31 December. Figures include both licensed and unlicensed vessels. Data processing: Registry information is provided to MMO by the RSS and Islands authorities. This is maintained by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) in a Sequel Server (SQL) database (the Vessel File). Registry details on CEFAS vessel file database are supplemented with additional information including administration details. Vessel file information can be linked to activity and licensing details which are also held as SQL databases. Extent: Home port locations of vessels. Unlike ports of administration these are not confined to the UK.